Opening of 3 new school canteens

In November, we opened 3 new school canteens in Ambohipo, Ambodimanga and Vohitrarivo schools.

Every canteen has an equipped kitchen (with improved furnaces, cooking pots, cooking utensils, plates, cutlery, cups, etc.) and an attic for storing foodstuffs.

The kitchen at the right of the 2 school buildings – Ambohipo school © D. Roullet

The kitchen at Ambohipo © D. Roullet

The storage attic at Ambohipo © D. Roullet

A big thank you to Bel Foundation which funded the creation of these 3 new school canteens.

Every school of the program now has a school canteen. The 5 school canteens directly benefit 662 children and their 22 teachers.

Sahofika school © S.Meys

The canteens are handled by a manager whom we recruited when the 3 new canteens opened. This manager is member of the NGO Impact Madagascar, our local partner on various development aid projects: management of school gardens, stock management, preparation of menus, training of cooks, etc.

Preparation of the meals under Mialy’s control who handdle the school canteens © D. Roullet

Note that the 5 school gardens, which were set up in every school, produced just over 10% of the accompaniments (mainly vegetables) from the opening of the canteens until the Christmas holidays.

The children’s meal is made up of rice supplemented each day with a different food such as green beans, carrots, beans, zucchini, potatoes, Cape peas, pasta, petsai (Chinese cabbage), lentils, fish, yams,bravimboatavo (eatable leaves), etc.

The children have access to a more varied diet in the canteen than at home, where they consume virtually no vegetables. In addition, many of them eat little in the morning for breakfast (mainly cassava), especially during the lean season.

However, we will be working in the coming weeks to improve the canteen menu, which is is not yet sufficiently balanced.

The school canteens will contribute to the long-term protection of the greater bamboo lemurs:

– by keeping children in school: they will acquire a better basic education and once adults, they will be able to better manage their natural resources.

– by generating new sources of income for local populations: job creation (gardeners for school gardens, cooks for preparing meals, etc.) and purchasing foodstuffs from local producers who benefit from our agricultural program (in progress).